'Being European' and being influenced by European legislation and academia affects every field of knowledge. It is necessary to pay more attention to European normative developments and their impact in the penal system of each European Union country. The way of punishing is one of the pillars in which our 'European Society' has been built. Therefore, to understand how and why do we punish in Spain we need to first understand the legislative, cultural, and academic European influence. Recently, many scholars have begun to emphasize the influence of European institutions such as the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights or the European Union in the legal definition and execution of sanctions in Spain.

Additionally, we cannot limit the criminological study of the 'European' influence to European legislation or jurisprudence. Thus, we use the concept 'European penology' to refer in a broad sense to all the institutions, dispositions, agents and networks that define the frame for discussion about penal sanctions in Europe. Nowadays, there exist non-governmental agencies such as the CEP (The European Organisation of Probation) or EuroPris (The European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services) that have promoted good practices at the European level. Those kinds of agencies have had enough influence to determine which sanctions fulfil the 'European standards'.

Specifically, the objectives of this research are:

a) To develop a theoretical frame to identify the main mechanisms through which the 'European Penology' affects the penal sanction systems of the European Union countries.

b) To analyze how 'European Penology' has influenced the Spanish system.

c) To identify the potential threats that the growing influence of the European Union on its members can have to future transformations of the criminal sanction system of our country.